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Combat and Actions
Combat in a world filled with firearms, radscorpions, and hostile plants can be a tricky thing. Simple tries to break the process down into easily digestible chunks for your gaming pleasure. Simple combat is sequentially turn-based, with characters performing independent actions in order of combat sequence. Combat begins when characters take agressive action against one another or when the Overseer believes it is imminent. Combat ends when hostilities have ended for a reasonable period of time, determined by the Overseer. Even though Simple is a relatively uncomplicated system, you will still need the following items to carry out accurate combat calculations: *Hex Mat - Combat in Fallout is based on the use of a hex grid. If your local game store does not carry hex mats, try the online web store at Chessex (http://www.chessex.com/). *Mat-Friendly Markers - You may need these to draw out walls, obstacles, etc., and also to mark the locations of characters if a session ends mid-combat. *Miniatures - You don't have to buy actual metal minatures, but having some sort of scale appropriate (6'/2m across a hex from face to face) representation of characters is a good idea. Miniatures should always indicate facing. *String - A 12" long piece of ordinary string should suffice. It will be used to chart line of sight. (the edge of a piece of paper will also serve: an average piece is 11" long) *30º and 60º Wedges - These can be made of paper, plastic, or slices of watermelon, if you really want. They should be a few inches long and will be used to help determine where an attack mode's narrow and wide cones fall. Combat Procedure The Three Phases of Combat Combat in Fallout is divided into three distinct phases: move, charge, and action. All characters involved in a battle will resolve their movement before any are allowed to charge (if able) and all characters will resolve their charge before they are allowed to take their action. This style of combat may seem strange, but it provides the capability for interesting tactical choices and events. Determining and Following Sequences At the beginning of every combat, all characters must determine their combat sequence, which is followed for the entirety of combat. Roll a single d10 and to it, add your combat sequence. If two or more characters are tied, have them each roll a d10 to determine order, with the highest always winning out. Once the order is established, the number itself isn't important. Characters will always act in order of sequence in each phase. Newcomers to battles are always added on to the end. If multiple newcomers join in the same round, they fight for pecking rights at the end by rolling for sequence as though they started a new battle. Move Phase During the move phase, characters can perform one (1) of the following actions: *Prone move or climb up to one hex. *Crouch move or swim up to two hexes. *Stand move to four hexes. *Run move up to eight hexes (character cannot participate in the charge or action phases for the round). *Put away or take out one small item. *Put away and take out one small item (character cannot participate in the charge or action phases for the round). *Put away or take out two small items (character cannot participate in the charge or action phases for the round). *Put away or take out one large item (character cannot participate in the charge or action phases for the round). *Switch from prone to crouch or crouch to stand. *Switch from prone to stand (character cannot participate in the charge or action phases for the round). *Evade, inflicting a -5 penalty on all attacks against you (character cannot participate in the charge or action phases for the round). The character can also, on their turn during this phase, perform as many of these free actions as they want: *At the very beginning or end of their movement turn, switch from stand to crouch, crouch to prone, or stand to prone. *Drop items of any size. N.B.: Characters in heavy armor (Power Armor, Tesla Armor, etc.) cannot Run move and cannot switch from prone to stand. Characters with a heavy weapon (Rocket Launcher, 7.62mm Machinegun, etc.) in hands cannot participate in the action phase if they perform anything but free actions in the movement phase. Charge Phase During the charge phase, characters can perform the following action, once. *From a standing position, charge no less than one hex and no more than four hexes overlapping a straight line to immediately perform a melee attack on an adjacent target. Action Phase During the action phase, characters can perform one (1) of the following actions: *Use a skill (includes making attacks). *Use an item (includes loading/repairing). *Declare a narrow cone overwatch zone, which allows the character to interrupt an enemy with a single attack during the next movement phase if the enemy enters the overwatch zone (character cannot participate in the move or charge phases for the next round). Ending a Round and Beginning the Next Round The round ends when everyone involved in combat capable of taking actions has done so, and all combat sequences are accounted for and re-sorted. The next round starts with the lowest sequence character acting first in the movement phase, then going through the queue. In the charge and action phases, the highest sequence character acts first. Unconscious characters are skipped. Actions in Combat When a character's combat sequence comes up, it is likely that the player will want them to do something. The following mechanics cover those actions. Calculating to Hit To hit an opponent, a target must use an attack and specify a target for the attack. The chance for the attacker to hit the target is determined using the normal skills check. The "other modifiers" to hit typically include Range Penalty + Visibility Penalties - Proximity Penalty Range Penalty This is determined by the attack's range and the distance the target is from the subject. Range penalties only apply to thrown and fired attacks (e.g.: a grenade, a gun, etc.). The attack mode's range is the range at which the weapon suffers no penalties to hit. This is called Point Blank. There are four other ranges into which a target may fall. If a target falls within any of the subsequent ranges, there are increasing penalties to hit it. An attack cannot be made beyond Maximum Range. *Point Blank: Range * 1, No Penalty *Close: Range * 2, 2 Penalty *Medium: Range * 3, 4 Penalty *Far: Range * 4, 6 Penalty *Maximum: Range * 8 Penalty Special: Weapons with the Scope weapon accessory suffer an additional 10 penalty to hit when they attack targets within Point Blank range. Size, Stance and Range Penalties The above penalties for range assume that the creature is human sized (large). A small target, like a dwarf or small radscorpion, is effectively twice as far away for purposes of determining range penalties. Tiny targets, like scurry bots, are effectively three times as far away. Minute targets, like mice, are effectively four times as far away. Great targets, like huge radscorpions and security robots, are effectively half as far away. If a creature can change stance, it can effectively make its size smaller for purposes of range penalties. A crouching target is one size category smaller for purposes of range and cover. A prone target is two size categories smaller for the same purposes. Visibility Penalty Targets inflict penalties to hit on the attacker depending on how difficult it is for the attacker to see the target. *Clearly Visible: No Penalty *Partially Obscured: 4 Penalty (dim lighting, light smoke) *Moderately Obscured: 8 Penalty (dark lighting, heavy smoke) *Heavily Obscured: 16 Penalty (only vaguely discernable) *Completely Obscured: 20 Penalty (can be detected by hearing only) Proximity Penalty Proximity penalties are applied to attack modes from specific types of weapons when an enemy is standing within one hex of them and is not stunned. Pistols and similar one-handed range devices get a -4 penalty, and two-handed weapons recieve a -8 penalty. Using Two Weapons Typically only used in situations of desperation or extreme advantage, characters can use a weapon in each hand simultaneously (or perform other actions simultaneously). The player chooses to perform two actions simultaneously. The actions must be logically possible one-handed. A character could not, for instance, fire one gun with their right hand and reload another gun with their left hand. Both actions can be performed, but both actions suffer a -8 penalty to any related skill rolls on top of all other penalties. Causing Damage Wow, you hit the target! Now it's time to calculate damage. All weapons or ammunition types have damage values associated with them. Roll the damage value for each target. Subtract the target's appropriate Damage Threshold (DT) for that damage type to arrive at final damage. Remember: DTs are applied on a per-hit basis. If a target is hit with six bullets, his or her DT is subtracted from each of the damage rolls. Critical Hits Every time an attack successfully hits, there is a chance that it can become a critical hit. A critical hit is an attack that has landed in a particularly vulnerable spot on the opponent’s body and done more severe damage, typically twice as much. To determine a player’s chance of getting a critical hit roll 1d100 and see if it falls within the Crit-range. To determine the Crit range, subtract you LUCK statistic from 95. should your d100 land at or above that amount, then a critical hit is delt to the foe. Critical Damage is determined by the weapon, ammo, and perks. The Damage is modified by the weapons Crit Damage Example: Ted of the wilds has 3 Luck, and a 9mm Pistol *95 - 3 Luck = 92 *Ted rolls 97 *97>92, Its a Crit! *Ted's 9mm (1d6+2 Damage) Pistol's crit damage is x2 *(1d6+2) x2 = 2d6+4 *Ted's Critical hit does 2d6+4 Damage It should be noted that multiple crit damage multipliers are addative, not multiplicative. The better criticals perk with a .22 pistol equates to x4 Crit damage, not x6. Critical Failure Just as there is a chance to get a critical scucess in an attack, there is also a chance to criticaly fail. Should you roll a 5 or less on a crit chance, you will still deal damage to your foe as per a sucessful attack, but your weapon will jam and become damaged. (Melee weapons cannot jam, but still take damage) When a gun is jammed, it takes an unload action to clear the chamber before being usable again. Disarm A disarm is essentially an unarmed attack and can occur during either the charge or action phases. Disarming a small item requires only one open hand. Disarming a large item requires two. To disarm, the attacker must make a Melee skill check against a Very Easy difficulty + the target's Melee skill total. If successful, the item is in the hand(s) of the attacker. Called Shots Called shots are an important part of Fallout combat. They allow characters to inflict devastating status penalties on characters that would otherwise not be possible. A talented combatant can break limbs, cause internal bleeding, and even blind opponents. Called shots exist independently of the critical hit system, though a character with enough talent can stack the effects of a critical hit and called shot if his or her margin of success is high enough. The difficulty of a called shot is directly proportional to the size of the body part being targeted. All body types in Fallout have body part sizes based on the size of individual limbs. To hit the target, penalties are applied as though the target is actually the size of the limb at range. Though there is no sequence penalty for taking a called shot, a failed roll is assumed to miss entirely. *Human Torso or Leg: Small (x2 Range Modifier) *Human Arm or Head: Tiny (x3 Range Modifier) *Human Eyes or Groin: Minute (x4 Range Modifier) If an attack hits, damage is rolled against that body part. The attack is considered a Cripple if it does more than 10% of the target's total hit points in damage. Crippled Effects *Crippled Arm: All actions performed with that arm are at -8. *Crippled Eye: Vision damaged. All targets are lightly obscured. *Two Crippled Eyes: Blinded. All targets are moderately obscured *Crippled Head: Concussion, IN, PE, and AG are all -2. Character has 10% chance per round of falling unconscious. *Crippled Groin: Character falls prone and cannot stand or move without assistance. *Crippled Leg: All actions performed with that leg are at -8. *Two Crippled Legs: Movement rates are halved (rounded down). *Crippled Torso: Character takes 10% of damage inflicted by the attack per round after the first (rounded down). If a creature has more than two eyes/legs, the penalties for a single maim or break apply until all eyes/legs are Crippled Removing a Crippled status To remove a Crippled status, the character will have to have it fixed through the use of Medic or Mechanics (if the character is living or robot, respectively). Death and Fatigue When a character hits zero hit points, the character dies. Many games have a "Death's Door" buffer prior to death. Fallout uses a fatigue scale to provide an occasional buffer to death's cold embrace. Armor can help convert damage into fatigue. When this happens, the character's fatigue, which starts at zero, goes up. Every round, on the character's turn, his or her fatigue goes down by his or her healing rate. If a character's fatigue is equal to or higher than his or her current hit points, the character is winded and suffers a 4 penalty to all skill checks and has half AP, rounded down. Once the character's fatigue falls below their current hit points, the character is no longer winded. If a character's fatigue ever passes their maximum hit points, the character passes out and falls to the ground. Once the character's fatigue falls below their maximum hit points, they regain consciousness. Category:Simple system